


waiting for your head to explode

by avapacifica



Series: October Writing Challenge 2020 [16]
Category: The Lords of Salem (2013)
Genre: Angst, Drug Abuse, Drug Addiction, Drug Use, F/M, Heavy Angst, Hopeful Ending, Hospitalization, Hospitals, Near Death, Not Beta Read, Overdosing, Rescue, Sad, please point out mistakes if you see them i cannot read over this rn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:33:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27056488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avapacifica/pseuds/avapacifica
Summary: heidi isn't picking up her phone and whitey is forced to assume the worst
Relationships: Heidi Hawthorne/Herman "Whitey" Salvador
Series: October Writing Challenge 2020 [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948126
Kudos: 1





	waiting for your head to explode

**Author's Note:**

> Day 16: Silence  
> title is from a Used song  
> i'm surprised there aren't any works for this movie, i really enjoyed it and thought other people would ship this too. i mean come on, a healthy relationship in a RZ movie? how could i not?

Heidi hadn’t picked up her phone. This could mean one of two things. Her ringer might be off, the likely answer as there have been many instances where she’s missed calls in front of him. Whitey can’t take the chance though, the alternative is too risky.

When he gets to her apartment, Ms. Doyle is sitting on the steps reading. It calms down Whitey in the slightest. Of course, Heidi could still be dying up in her room, but the landlord’s soothing, grandmother-like aura slows down his heartbeat, makes him think that everything’s okay. That maybe he was overreacting by biking here.

Once his bike is safely inside, he isn’t in as much of a hurry. He takes his time going up the stairs, a decision he’ll regret later, trying to convince himself that everything’s alright. 

Her apartment, number 2, is quiet. Ms. Doyle’s presence has dropped along with his stomach. The pit is there, reminding him that Heidi is sick, still is, and she could be dead behind that very door. Not letting his nerves show, because he doesn’t want to scare her, he knocks lightly. Whitey waits the obligatory few seconds, giving her a chance to answer. He can’t take holding on too long though, perhaps knocking again a moment or two too soon. The second time, he calls her name out. There’s no answer, dead silence. 

Herman presses his ear up against the door, hoping to hear a familiar record, anything to indicate that Heidi is alive. There’s nothing, absolutely nothing. He pulls out his phone again, thinking maybe,  _ maybe,  _ she’s just not home. Ms. Doyle should’ve mentioned it when he went inside, but he’s counting on her not knowing. The first ring on his end he hears nothing. He prays he’s in the clear, until the ringtone picks up on the other side of the door. He can’t assume, maybe she’s just sleeping. But it rings until the end, and now he’s sure. 

Whitey bangs on the door with the side of the fist, but quickly realizing how pointless it is, he slams into it with his shoulder. The first time he hears wood crack, but it’s pretty sturdy. The second time, he’s able to get it open. He runs in, scanning the apartment for her. Heidi’s passed out on the couch.

She isn’t foaming at the mouth like last time, but he knows what happened. The drugs are on her coffee table, not even attempted to be hidden. She’s in a position that should be uncomfortable. When Herman checks her pulse, it’s there, but barely. 

“Fuck!” He yells, hands on the side of his head. This can’t be happening, not again. If he loses her now, after all the progress she had made… What was the point of it all? He gets his phone out again, his hands visibly shaking. Dialling 911, he tries to still them for her sake. 

“911. What is your emergency?” 

“My friend, she’s passed out. Her heartbeat is really slow, I can barely hear it.” He explains. Though she’s clearly overdosed, through research he’s learned not to tell them that. That only means more trouble for her, which can be avoided if just an ambulance comes, and not the police.

“We’ll send someone over immediately. What’s your address?” He goes on to give the person on the line all the information they need, but if they ask him if he wants them to stay on until help gets there, he declines. He goes downstairs to Ms. Doyle, who seems to have not heard anything that had happened. 

“Heidi, she’s” he’s stuttering, and she tilts her head at him. “She’s passed out up there, she OD’d. There’s going to be an ambulance here in a few minutes.”

“Hm.” The woman nods. She closes her book with no sense of urgency. “I suppose this will be a tough part of her journey.” It’s the first time Whitey is ever suspicious of her, though he’s in too much of a frenzy right now to notice. Heidi could be dead by the time the EMTs get there. He chalks it up to her responding to panic in a different way. 

The sirens blare and the lights hit the houses down the street. Herman mentally preps himself to show them upstairs, but when they hop out of the ambulance he’s frozen. Ms. Doyle takes over for him luckily, and the next time he sees Heidi is when they bring her out on the stretcher. She looks cold already.

“We can only take one of you.” They are informed. Whitey is back in his mind, grounded again, and is about to volunteer. Ms. Doyle cuts him off though, and the EMT that offered helps her into the vehicle. It feels wrong, for the person who wasn’t even there to check on her, despite knowing about her problems. He can’t exactly tell her to get out, and he settles on riding his bike to whatever hospital they take her to. 

He stays behind the ambulance as long as he’s able, but it quickly outdoes him and turns a corner behind his sight. Whitey doesn’t need to follow to know where he’s going though, he’s memorized every possible route to where he’s going. 

It’s funny. Every time Herman found himself googling or reading up on what to do in case of an overdose, or what to do when your friend is high, it was always a ‘just in case.’ He assured himself that it would be helpful to know, but that he’d never have to put the knowledge into action. Somewhere in his mind though, he knew it was false. This was always going to happen again, he doesn’t know how he knew, but he did.

A half hour has passed by the time he reaches the hospital. He ditches his bike outside, to hell with it if someone wants to steal it, it’s not worth the time to lock it up. The staff isn’t very helpful, though they do seem very busy. By the time he’s able to locate Heidi she’s already been dealt with, given a stomach pump and a room. Ms. Doyle is nowhere to be found. Figures.

Whitey sits with her until she wakes up, which does end up taking a while. A particularly kind nurse offers him some food after a certain amount of hours, but he refuses. He’s afraid he’d just puke it up. He stays, zoned out, and doesn’t even notice when she’s roused. 

Heidi wakes slowly. Her eyes trace down her arm to the tube inserted in it, and fall on Herman. His eyes are trained on a spot in the distance, and he’s hunched over with his hands clasped in front of his face. Clearly worried, his knuckles are as pale as his face.

“Hey.” Her voice is scratchy. She figures she should’ve said something else, but she isn’t in the mood for thinking up sentences. Whitey jumps beside her, rushing to her side. His hands hover aimlessly, afraid she might break if he touches her. She looks so frail, he blames himself for letting it get this bad. “Do we need to talk?” The look of dread on her face is apparent.

“No.” He shakes his head. “Later.” It’s barely been hours, what she needs is rest. “Just tell me what I can do.” Heidi extends her hand to him, it’s numb from being passed out. He takes it, the life practically returning to her as they touch.

He means it when they say they’ll talk later. The first time she overdosed, he made her promise herself that she’d get better. That clearly didn’t work. This time Whitey hopes she’ll promise him, if that’s worth anything. Right now she needs to focus on getting better. He won’t rush anything, because now he knows how to do this right. He won’t fail again, because this is on his shoulders as much as it’s on hers. He’s happy to share the load.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm hoping this isn't too rough, i am tired. regardless, i hope you enjoyed! (if anyone does end up seeing this) kudos and comments are always appreciated, they make my day!


End file.
